International studio (50.1913)

Robert I. Aitken


BY ROBERT I. AITKEN, A.N.A.

TWO SOULS

cisco’s great earthquake, this monument still
stands, though other of Mr. Aitken’s work was
less fortunate, as we shall see later. That

make a monument to Bret Harte, and he
chose for his design an incident in the novelist’s
story of “Luck of Roaring Camp,” which he
completed and had cast in bronze, only to
have it entirely lost in the earthquake. There
was work enough in San Francisco to provide
the sculptor with funds that enabled him to
make another trip to France, where he settled
himself comfortably with a studio for several
years, and began his group, To Those Born
Dead, a composition yet incomplete. Mean-
while his heroic figure of The Athlete wees sent
to the Salon of 1907, and secured favorable
attention, not an easy accomplishment in
Paris, for in matters artistic the Gaul is by no
means attracted lightly or unadvisedly. Re-
turning, the sculptor settled in New York City
and at once became a very notable part of the
art life of the metropolis. Almost immedi-
ately he began a series of bust portraits, an
early sitter being David Warfield, the dis-
tinguished actor, 'while later came the paint-
ers, Willard L. Metcalf and George Bellows,
with the playwrights, Augustus Thomas and
the Englishman, Henry Arthur Jones.
Presently he was called upon to make a like-
ness of President Taft, for which purpose he
went to Washington, and sat quietly in a
corner of the business office of the Chief Executive,
who regarded the very youthful artist lightly until

same year there was 'won another competi-
tion, a monument to the martyred President
McKinley, which was likewise placed in Golden
Gate Park, while replicas of the portrait sub-
sequently went to St. Helena, and to Berke-
ley, California.
Later came an heroic figure of Hall Mc-
Allister, which now stands in front of the City
Hall, at San Francisco. There comes a time
in the life of every American artist when
the call to Europe is well-nigh irresistible,
and there are few who do not succumb. The
lure of Paris was strong within the youthful
Aitken, and thither he went in 1895 for a
brief period, not settling at the schools, but
visiting the galleries and museums and work-
ing in a studio there. The stay of three short
months, however, was long enough for him
to accomplish much, and he came back to
his native city with material that enabled
him to hold an exhibition at the Bohemian
Club, of which he was a member. As a result
of this display, the club commissioned him to


A CREATURE OF GOD
TILL NOW UNKNOWN

BY ROBERT I. AITKEN
A.N.A.

IV